Judith Leiber Handbags
J U D I T H L E I B E R H A N D BAG S L E I B E R M U S E U M JUDITH LEIBER’S ARTFUL HANDBAGS By Jeffrey Sussman There are many highly accomplished artists in a wide variety of fields: painting, sculpture, music, literature, photography, film, architecture, etc. In the creation of artful handbags, however, there is only Judith Leiber; she is entirely sui generis. Prior to the creation of beautiful handbags that are works of art, handbags had been, at best, stylish and fashionable. The handbags of Judith Leiber go beyond fashion, indeed, even beyond style. The bags are regarded by highly respected museum curators the world over as works of art. It is why the bags are in the permanent collections of such museums as the Smithsonian, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Corcoran Gallery, and The Victoria and Albert Museum, among various others. Dennis Kois, the former exhibition designer at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and now Executive Director of the deCordova Museum in Massachusetts, wrote: “Mrs. Leiber’s work was shown at the [Corcoran] because she is among the few fashion designers in the world whose work transcends craft and enters the realm of art.” And Dr. Valerie Steel, Director and Chief Curator of the Museum at FIT, wrote: “Judith Leiber is one of the world’s most important handbag designers. Her name is synonymous with a certain kind of evening bag known as a minaudiere, which is made of metal or other hard materials and usually highly decorated or bejeweled.
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